This Woman Saved A Man’s Life By Being An Instagram Activist

Alison Brettschneider is not a communications exec, she’s not a lawyer, and she didn’t know a damn thing about being a professional activist – except what her heart has told and led her – which is to always speak out and act fast when she sees injustice. Based on her New Yawk no-fucks given attitude and not being a smidgen camera shy, she has garnered over 227k followers on her girl power-themed instagram account @25Park (the name of her now closed NYC clothing store.)

Never shying away from anti-Trump rhetoric, outing body shamers and bullies, and sex-positive messaging, Brettschneider didn’t wince when she got her usual inundation of change.org petitions one morning. While signing away, as modern armchair activists now do, she noticed one particular petition one Friday night – the story of Marcellus Williams in St. Louis, scheduled to be executed on Tuesday at 6 p.m. with only about 30,000 signatures, despite new DNA evidence pointing to his innocence, the state of Missouri still planned to move forward with his execution.

With days to spare, Brettschneider went rogue, contacting Williams lawyer for more details and doing her due diligence by fact checking. What she found out so enflamed her sense of justice, that she went to work – contacting all her celebrity and media friends (as one has when they live in Los Angeles or New York) to get the word out. She (and her power posse) flooded the Governor of Missouri’s instagram page with thousands of comments, and what happened next was a sheer miracle.

After jumping on a plane to Missouri, CNN picked up the story, and with minutes to spare, Williams’ life was miraculously pardoned.. for now. There is so much more work to be done on this case, but the moral of the story is, as Margaret Mead said; “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”